Book Description:After years of searching through dusty museum collections and royal stores across India, acclaimed designer Ritu Kumar has uncovered many of the last surviving examples of traditional royal clothing. Her book is a celebration of this rich legacy of textiles and craftsmanship. This in depth study of the evolution of Indian royal costume spans the centuries from the first representations of clothing in ancient India, through the reign of the Mughal emperors and the days of the British Raj, to Indian independence and royalty in the present day. The author covers both men's and women's garments, Hindu and Muslim styles, and documents the evolution of European Indian fashions. This sumptuous volume is illustrated with a variety of material, much of which has never been published before ranging from archive photographs, miniatures, royal portraits and cinema stills, to detailed images of garments and textiles from as far back as the seventeenth century. A separate section explains in detail the technique